I rate spirited away higher than Howl's because it was the first anime film I saw and because I think Howl's had a weak ending. I would highly recommend watching GotF even if it does reduce you to tears.

As a movie "Akira" really was highly overrated but I think it could be a fine property if it was given the OVA treatment; maybe like 6 or 8 eps would bring clarity and possibly even better animation than what was present in the original movie.

Karas was really cool first couple of times I watched it but lost it's appeal too quickly. Cowboy Bebop movie is one of the few I can keep coming back to like Sword of the Stranger and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

Akira still has some of the best animation anime has to offer. It took a Disney style approach using shapes to frame the characters and make them more model like. Where as most anime is free hand. It also used computers to digitally draw most in between frames. It was ahead of it's time. I do agree Cowboy Bebop is definitely one of the best though.